WILL WELCH has revealed his back-breaking agony after finally returning to Newcastle Falcons’ starting line-up from three months on the sidelines.

The combative openside was rendered motionless by the pain after steaming into a tackle against Rotherham, revealing: “I was just lying in the foetal position not wanting to move.

“When the medics tried to roll me on my back it was agony, and for the first three weeks I couldn’t do anything.”

Explaining the extent of the injury, the skipper said: “I carried the ball into a tackle, and it was pretty painful. I fractured my transverse vertebrae, which are basically the two points coming off your back where all the muscles attach to. I knocked the end off one of them and slightly fractured the other one, although at the time I didn’t think it was too bad.

“Whenever I coughed or sneezed the pain was horrendous.

“I had to wear a back brace to walk and I was pretty crook because all the muscles had tightened up on one side.

“It is actually the first bone I have ever broken, so I have started with a good one!”

Simply putting it down as an occupational hazard, Welch added: “It probably sounds worse than it is, and when you play open-side you just accept that these things come with the territory and there are going to be times when you are unable to play.

“I had already missed a month through concussions, so it hasn’t been the best start to a season from an injury point of view.”

With his absence from the field coinciding with his new leadership duties, Welch said: “I have learnt a lot during my first half-year as captain, although it has been frustrating because obviously I haven’t been playing for much of it.

“It is hard to preach things when you can’t practise them yourself, but the team meetings have been good this year and I have really learnt a lot from Dean Richards and the rest of the coaches.

“Getting that understanding and putting my points across to the players is something I have worked on, and hopefully with more games under my belt I can continue with that in the New Year.”

Assessing his own progress on the playing front, he added: “It is hard to judge because I have only played a few games, but I am bigger than I was and I do like to play a bit heavier.

“That makes me stronger when I am over the ball at the breakdown, and hopefully I will benefit from that as the season progresses.”